Can campaigners SMASH the push for housing in Medstead and Four Marks?

 Published article in the ALTON HERALD  22 August 2024 

Next time you go on Google, tap in ‘Four Marks, Medstead, Alton Herald’ and you’ll see most of the links that come up are about housing or development.

 The first is planning inspector allows 60 houses to be built in Four Marks while the following involve petitions, major development, and concerns over 1300 homes.

There are other things happening in Medstead and Four Marks, but right now and for the last few years the biggest talking point has been housing.

And still it comes: Plans for 53 homes behind 61 Lymington Bottom Road and up to 70 more between Beechlands Road and Stoney Lane were highlighted in May while plans for 54 behind Brackenbury Gardens have been recommended for approval by EHDC planning committee this week.

It’s hard to keep track with all these plans and speculative applications being submitted, but there’s is a group which are keeping a watchful eye trying to slow the pace.

Stand with Medstead Against Speculative Housing (SMASH) know they can’t stop houses from being built around the village, but they’re determined to get new homes placed in sensible sites, and with the infrastructure to accommodate it.

 A group of concerned Medstead residents came together in 2022 to form the outfit amid plans to build 650 homes west of Lymington Bottom Road. The three applications were refused, and they’ve been keeping pressure on EHDC and developers ever since.

“We seem to have become a dumping ground for all these new houses” said Steve Adams, chair of SMASH.

“The housing keeps coming, its urbanisation by stealth. They tried it large scale with 650 homes, and it didn’t work, and now they’re sneaking in with little applications here and there. ‘South Medstead will be a mirror image of Four Marks but we’re not getting the facilities, supermarkets, the train station and all the stuff we need”  Medstead is divided into two parts and the area closest to the Mid Hants railway is called South Medstead (for planning purposes). 

Its housing stock has increased by a staggering 96.8% from 340 to 668 homes since 2013.

The population of Four Marks and South Medstead has also increased by 38.1% from 4,067 to 5,617 in the ten years after 2011.

East Hampshire District Council is currently in the process of updating its Local Plan but few need reminding  of how fraught the process has been to find allocation sites. Its inevitable more housing will be built in Four Marks and South Medstead and Mr Adams and his colleagues accept that, but it’s got to be right.

He said “Currently, we are working with other local residents’ groups as we are all passionate about saving our two lovely villages from destruction.”

“For us, its all about saving our villages from overdevelopment and total urbanisation.”

He added “Our job is to put the developments where its appropriate and to stop any speculation that we can. We want our kids to grow up in a village, and we just want things done the right way.”

Thanks to Paul Ferguson, Herald Editor for publishing this article 

If you want to help please visit the SMASH website at http://www.smashonline.co.uk